Consumers urged to shop around

19/09/11

Shane Gladstone

The energy secretary has called on people to investigate the market if they want to reduce the cost of gas and electricity bills.

Chris Huhne told the Times that "shopping around" for cheaper deals could see families save enough cash to go away for a couple of days.

But the Liberal Democrat claimed that 85 per cent of households were not shopping around for deals and called on them to change their ways.

He said: "They frankly spend less time shopping around for a bill that's on average more than £1,000 a year than they would shop around for a £25 toaster.

"If they got that in perspective and said, 'OK, we are going to spend a little bit of time shopping around' (they) could save very substantial amounts of money."

Huhne was speaking in the wake of EDF's announcement that it was increasing its gas prices by 15.4 per cent.

The changes will kick-in from November 10, with electricity tariffs also increasing 4.5 per cent.